Posted: Monday, February 27, 2017 12:43 pm | Updated: 2:54 pm, Mon Feb 27, 2017.

Update: Evening classes will be meeting as scheduled, according to the provost’s office. Classes will resume at their normal times tomorrow, depending on the weather. 

Rain unexpectedly turned into snow early Monday morning. This led Northwest University Provost Jim Heugel to initially delay and then eventually cancel all daytime classes. The snow quickly accumulated early in the morning, almost two inches on the Eastside, enough to cause traffic delays and prevent many faculty, staff, and commuter students from coming to campus.

“I hate snow,” said Bud Githens, maintenance supervisor. “It causes problems, especially for our campus—since it’s on a hill.”

NU Maintenance worked with National Landscaping employees early this morning to clear walkways. It is still unclear whether or not evening classes will continue as planned.

However, maintenance employees are not the only people frustrated by the snow. Faculty members like Dr. Clint Bryan, who also oversees the Writing Center, are having to make adjustments.

“It makes it difficult because our tutors are students first,” Bryan said, “Many students are not able to receive tutoring for their papers on these snow days because we are not open.”

His colleagues in the Communication Studies department, Dr. Will Mari, echoed Bryan’s concerns.

“At this point in the semester, it’s really frustrating to have to cancel classes,” he said. “With several snow days already, it’s impacting how much material I can cover, especially for my Monday courses.”

Monday evening classes like Dr. Scott Campanario’s industrial organizational psychology and Dr. Suzan Kobashigawa’s TESOL classes have only met four of the eight weeks of this semester.

The provost’s office is expected to announce any further cancellations by 3:00 p.m.